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CHAP. 3.—AT WHAT PERIOD LICHEN FIRST MADE ITS APPEARANCE
IN ITALY.

This curse was unknown to the ancients,1 and in the times of
our fathers even, having first entered Italy in the middle of
the reign of the Emperor Tiberius2 Claudius Cæsar; where
it was introduced from Asia,3 in which country it had lately
made4 its appearance, by a member of the equestrian order at
Rome, a native of Perusiun, secretary to the quæstor. The
disease, however, did not attack either females or slaves,5
nor yet the lower orders, or, indeed, the middle classes, but
only the nobles, being communicated even by the momentary
contact requisite for the act of salutation.6 Many of those
who persevered in undergoing a course of remedial treatment,
though cured of the disease, retained scars upon the body more
hideous even than the malady itself; it being treated with
cauteries, as it was certain to break out afresh, unless means
were adopted for burning it out of the body by cauterizing to
the very bone.

Upon this occasion several physicians repaired to Rome
from Egypt, that fruitful parent of maladies of this nature,
men who devoted themselves solely to this branch of medical
practice; and very considerable were the profits they made.
At all events, it is a well-known fact that Manilius Cornutus,
a personage of prætorian rank, and legatus of the province of
Aquitania, expended no less a sum than two hundred thousand7 sesterces upon his cure.

It is much more frequently, on the other hand, that we hear
of new forms of diseases attacking the lower orders; a singular
fact, and one quite unequalled for the marvellous phænomena
which sometimes attend these outbreaks. Thus, for instance,
we find an epidemic suddenly making its appearance in a certain country, and then confining itself, as though it had made
its election so to do, to certain parts of the body, certain ages,
and even certain pursuits in life. In the same way, too, while
one class of diseases attacks the young, another confines itself
to adults; while one malady extends itself only to the higher
classes, another is felt exclusively by the poor.

2 It is somewhat difficult to say whether Tiberius, the predecessor, or
Claudius, the successor of Caligula, is meant; most probably the latter,
as the former's reign would have been in the times of "our fathers."

4 "Cum apparuisset." He is probably wrong here, for leprosy was
known in Asia from the very earliest times.

5 This assertion as to the slaves and lower orders is somewhat doubtful,
though it is very possible that the diet and habits of the higher orders
may have predisposed them more particularly for the attacks of the diseases.

6 "Osculi," "kissing;" a nauseous and silly practice, still adhered to,
between bearded men even, in many parts of Europe.

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